My band went into the studio!

[[Cameron]]

Hey everyone,
I'm just really proud of this so I wanted to show it off. Yesterday my band went into the studio for the first time ever, we've done demo's in my crap little home set up, but this was in a pro studio. It was amazing to work in there all day and it was so worth it, so please have a listen and tell me what you think.
http://www.myspace.com/mysterymachinetheband
Song we recorded in studio is called The Tree Song.
Cheers,
-Cameron

[Ubel]

Wow, that sounds really great! The style reminds me of Jimi Hendrix. Good job and congratulations!

[[Cameron]]

Thanks Pablo, I'm glad you liked it And any comparison to Jimi Hendrix can't be a bad thing!

[Sam.]

Really good stuff, I'm going toplay this on my radio show, which incidentally, you should all listen to

[Vince Twelve]

I really like this Cameron.  It's a fun sound!

[Blackthorne]

The track sounds great, man.  It's cool to see how you've developed musically over the years.


Bt

[Gregjazz]

Sounds excellent! I can't wait to hear what more you record!

[Nikolas]

This sounds GREAT man! Well done!

[[Cameron]]

Thanks guys It's quite a good feeling hearing all this positive feedback. The track convinced a friend of ours to join as a full time drummer. And today after school we worked on him learning the drums to that song and getting some stuff down for other tracks. This saturday we're going in to recording another song I'll let you know when it's up!
Cheers,
-Cameron

[DoorKnobHandle]

Nice, added you!

[Helm]

It's kinda depressing a concept. I don't like your music much, believe it to be extremely derivative, but it's well-made mostly (a big-time producer would make it sound very marketable) and if you keep at it, you might make it big.

[[Cameron]]

Helm, as much as I usually respect you, fuck you. The idea is not making it big, sure, that'd be fun, but the idea is making good original music, and you just took a giant swipe at something I have put lots of time and effort into. If you don't want to say something constructive, then just shut the fuck up, alright?

[Helm]

But what I said is constructive: your music is not original in my opinion. And another constructive bit: learn to take criticism without lashing out, because you'll get a lot of it if you have any sort of public artistic venture like a band or whatever. You won't be able to go very far by telling everybody to fuck themselves when you don't like what they're saying.

I do not operate under the concept of 'if you have nothing good to say, say nothing at all'. Neither does this forum, as far as I know. I am not happy to have upset you, but I am really struggling with the idea of apologizing to you for giving it to you straight, and being told to fuck myself on top of that.

[[Cameron]]

Sorry I lashed out Helm, but it was a personal attack. Would you feel at ease if I said I thought your art was unoriginal and I really don't like it. That the whole thing was a depressing concept but you'll make it big because you're "marketable"? I can take criticism sure, but the way you said it was not remotley constructive and came across entirely as a personal jab. Image having this one piece of art you've been sketching and redrawing, always trying to improve it and doing a final version, only to have someone say it's not really worth it. Can you see where I'm coming from?

[Helm]

Sorry I lashed out Helm, but it was a personal attack. Would you feel at ease if I said I thought your art was unoriginal and I really don't like it.

Pretending I had made a claim to originality, I wouldn't feel at ease, I would try to inspect if there's any validity to such a complaint. I don't consider my music original, personally, so I don't have that problem. But since you make a big deal out of it in your myspace, first listing a huge list of artists you sound like and the saying 'we sound like ourselves' where in my opinion you clearly don't, you have a problem in your hands.

Originality in music is very difficult. Very difficult. Playing like the Doors and the Beatles is not very original. In your position I would change that concept to being a good but unoriginal band, rather than pretending we don't sound like anyone else. You're close to being good for the style, I'd drop the 'original' pretention altogether.

There's going to be so many people that won't like your music. If you promote it, be prepared.

[[Cameron]]

The fact that you dismiss so much as original is quite frustrating. We do like to sound like ourselves, sure people can hear influence, see some stylistic resembelances but we're not nicking riffs or stealing lyrics, we're writing original music with original lyrics that mean something to us, using our own words. So yes, I'd say we're original. If we go by your rule of originality, nothing will ever be original but is always a variation on an old theme. That idea distresses me. Everyones experiences in life are exclusive to them and that shapes who they are, which leads to them shaping their art. So we are original. The idea of you questioning artistic integrity is quite offensive, and would be to anyone. Suggesting I should give up being original and focus on being good for my style is plainly silly and rude.

[Helm]

No it's not. You're being awfully touchy. If you insist on showing your art in public, you need to get over this.

By a very humble definition or original, where you make your own riffs and lyrics, yes you are original. You're not a cover-band. But when people stress their artistic originality they usually don't speak about this. They mean their band doesn't sound like other bands, doesn't come across like other bands which is a claim that mainly genre originators (King Crimson, Black Sabbath, The Beatles for example) could make, and not for their whole career but for that precise turning point where they take the sum of their parts and create something arguably new with it. The Beatles started out playing rock n' roll covers. It would be ridiculous to suggest they were original at that stage.

The reason your band isn't original is that while the riffs and lyrics are new, they're stylistically aped from a number of bands you list yourself, and which come to mind acutely when I listen to your new song. It's that simple: you're not original because you sound like other bands. By that definition, 99.9% of bands are not original, and that's a pretty realistic estimate I think.

This idea, that distresses you, is one you should come to terms with without calling people rude, insulting their intelligence or telling them they should fuck off. If you want to be a frontman in a band, that is. Save the drama for when you stand to gain something from it.

[[Cameron]]

I concede your point. Sorry I'm touchy Helm, but this is our first studio recording and I'm quite proud of it. And yes in complete honesty this song is a little derivative, we in fact had a talk to the guitarist who wrote it about the fact he seemed to be drifting more and more into sameyness. In a few weeks we record again, and they are stronger pieces I think you might see as more original. As I said, I'm sorry I called you rude, insulted your intelligence and told you to fuck off, I reacted with passion as I'm quite passionate about my music. I shall try save the dramatics from now on.
Cheers Helm,
-Cameron

[Helm]

No worries.

[Gregjazz]

Sheesh. After years of playing in a group, you'll start seeing your own distinct, personal style and originality emerge. I don't really see criticizing originality valid anyway--it's such an amorphous, opinionated definition anyway. And at what granularity does the definition infer?

Music is a world of imitation, and through imitation and the reusing of ideas, new things evolve. You can't criticize this; it's the natural process of music.